World Geopark

This section studies the basic distribution of the world's national geoparks, and further introduces the development and geotourism of the world geoparks with the examples of Provence Highland Geopark in France, Lesvos Petrochemical Forest Geopark in Greece, Marble Arch Cave Geopark in Britain and Brownsville Geopark in Germany.

I. Distribution of members of the World Geopark Network

The distribution of members of the World Geopark Network is shown in Figure 7-3.

Figure 7-3 Distribution Map of World Geopark Network Members

Two. Examples of World Geoparks

(1) Provence Geopark, France

Provence Highland Geopark is located in the upper Provence Alps and Valle province in the southeast of France, with Digne-les-Bains as the center,150km north of Nice and 800km south of Paris. This area is a highland about 400-2960 km above sea level, bordering the Alps in the north of Provence, with beautiful natural environment and diverse landscape types, and the lowest place is incense.

Provence's geological reserve is located outside the western Alps, at the junction of the South Asian alpine chain and the southern inverted limestone area. The subalpine chain in the south experienced medium-scale overthrust movement, while the inverted limestone area in the south experienced early structural evolution, and the alpine orogeny itself had little influence on it.

According to the Environmental Protection Law 1976, there are 18 registered geological relics in Provence Natural Geological Protection Area, with a total area of 2.69325 square kilometers, surrounded by protected areas, covering 55 areas with a total area of about 2000 square kilometers. In this vast field museum, it is forbidden to collect any fossils. Similarly, in the registered geological relics, there are stricter regulations, even prohibiting the collection of natural bird specimens. However, in order to allow scientists to continue their research work and amateurs to carry out amateur activities, in addition to natural geological reserves, limited specimens are allowed to be collected in the reserves.

Geological tourism

Provence Plateau Geopark mainly focuses on agricultural activities and tourism, and improves the efficiency of landscape protection through agricultural activities such as raising sheep. Geopark tourism focuses on leisure, natural scenery and human landscape. Mineral water industry and hot spring industry have played an important role in Dnieleban town. These two pillars support the development of local service industry and handicraft industry, but in order to better protect the local natural environment, this area has not developed industrial activities.

Provence Highland Geopark has three quiet paths connecting different landscapes. Visitors can not only pay attention to fossils, structures or geological deposits, but also enjoy the fun of nature from historical landscapes and vegetation. Therefore, the geological relics in this area are by no means isolated. On the contrary, visitors can increase their knowledge through what they see and hear on the way. There are three museums connected with these three roads. The mission of these museums is not to replace the tour of geological reserves, but to let tourists enjoy the wonders. The purpose is to let them get more detailed information than from nature and learn more about geological science. In addition, the museum regularly organizes other popular science exhibitions and geological knowledge training.

(2) Lesvos Petrochemical Forest Geopark, Greece

Lesvos is one of the largest islands in Greece. Located in the northeast of Aegean Sea, with an area of 65,438+0,630 square kilometers. It looks like leaves. The island has fertile land and a wide variety of vegetation, including silvery olive trees, dark green pine trees, gray-green oak trees and wild flowers unique to the island. On the west coast of the island, volcanic rocks meet the blue Aegean Sea, and the heavy waves slowly peel off the petrochemical residues of ancient plants, giving us a chance to understand another legendary Atlantic Ocean, which disappeared in a "sea of fire" when the volcano erupted in the northern Aegean Sea 20 million years ago.

Lesvos Petrochemical Forest Geopark covers an area of 2.86 square kilometers, in which the gathering places of petrochemical trees are mainly located in Sigri, Antioch and Erasmus. This is the local petrochemical forest, with an area of over 6.5438+0.5 million hectares. In addition to the petrified trunk, you can also see well-preserved petrified roots, fruits, leaves and tree species. A large number of upright petrified trees with complete roots and well-developed roots provide evidence that these trees are petrified in their original positions.

Lesvos petrochemical forest provides us with a lot of information about the composition and characteristics of ancient flora and climatic conditions. Therefore, this land is a natural witness to record the geological history of the Aegean basin for at least 20 million years. Aware of the great environmental, geological and paleontological value of this area, the Greek government declared the petrochemical forest as a nature reserve, with the aim of effectively protecting and rationally managing this area.

The formation of petrochemical forest is due to volcanic activity in the northern Aegean Sea, which leads to the flow of pyroclastic materials from east to west. These pyroclastic materials covered a wide area and buried the dense forest that grew in the western part of the island at that time. Due to the rapid movement of pyroclastic materials, trunks, branches and leaves in the forest are almost instantly buried. At the same time, because the plant fiber is isolated from the external environment, the strong hydrothermal fluid circulation in pyrite is ensured, and the plant fiber is completely petrified under the best conditions. This kind of fossilization is essentially the replacement of organic plant substances by inorganic substances one by one. Therefore, the morphological characteristics of plants and the internal structure of trees have been well protected.

Today, volcanic rocks have been eroded by nature, revealing impressive upright or fallen trunks, which are 20 meters long and 3 meters in diameter. Visitors to Lesvos can have a variety of choices when visiting different petrochemical tree gathering places, including Lesvos Petrochemical Forest Natural History Museum in Sigri, where there are various exhibits that show the geological evolution of the Aegean Sea in a very vivid way. Near the museum is Sigri Geopark, where visitors can see the roots of petrochemicals with unique eyes. In addition, there are many upright petrified trunks and unique petrified leaves in the nearby Praka Geopark.

Geological tourism

Visitors to Petrochemical Forest Park will have a unique experience. The park is an unparalleled petrochemical forest area in the world. There are well-preserved petrified trees in the park, which once formed a lush forest ecosystem in ancient times. The number and size of many upright and fallen trunks (sometimes 7 meters and 22 meters long) scattered in this area will leave a deep impression on tourists.

(3) British marble arch cave world geopark

Marble Arch Cave World Geopark is located in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, England. There is a huge cave system in the lower part of the limestone slope of Cuilcagh Mountain, among which the marble arch cave is one of the most famous caves in Britain and Ireland. These caves were first discovered in 1895 by EdouardMartel, a famous French speleologist who taught cave science at Sorbonne Theological Seminary in Paris.

At the top of Cuilcagh mountain range, shale and sandstone form a vast beach, where rainfall gathers into discontinuous streams and rivers, and limestone infiltrates to form caves. Most caves are formed in the upper part of Dartry limestone formation, which is a complex rock group with different types of limestone, and its thickness and characteristics vary greatly, reflecting the increasing tectonic activity. Although the mudflat limestone in the geopark is clean and mostly layered, which helps to form large caves, these changes of dark limestone strata have an important impact on the development and formation of caves.

The lithology of these rocks has influenced the characteristics of Cuilcagh Mountains. The differences among sandstone, shale and limestone make the Cuilcagh Mountains have obviously different vegetation, topography and hydrological characteristics. Cuilcagh Mountain is not high, only 668 meters above sea level, but its northern region, under the influence of mild Atlantic climate, has an average annual rainfall of 65,438+500mm.

After flowing through impermeable sandstone and shale, the three rivers converge in the limestone stratum, and then flow forward for a certain distance along the limestone stratum, and the river water seeps into the ground to form caves. A famous marble arch cave is formed here, which shows the complicated cave origin, with precious typical sediments and various stalactites.

Geological tourism

Marble Arch Cave 1985 was developed as a tourist area by the administrative department of Fermana County. At present, it has become one of the famous tourist attractions in Ireland, receiving 92.2 million tourists from more than 100 countries.

It is unanimously regarded as a rare cave with great ornamental value in the world and is known as a world-class tourist attraction. Visitors can see a swift river in the mainstream caves.

In recent years, the achievements of marble arches in protection and development, education and geological tourism have attracted worldwide attention. In 200 1 year, Marble Arch Cave and Cuilcagh Mountain Park became the first European Geopark in Britain. In February 2004, the marble arch cave was listed in the World Geopark.

(4) Brownsville Geopark, Germany

Brownsville Geopark is located in northern Germany, around the Haltz Mountains, and its northern part is located in Brownsville until Fleischtingen Ridge. The whole geopark covers an area of 1 1.5 square kilometers, including 18 areas in three states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Because the geopark covers a very large area, it is managed by a committee composed of two associations: one is the Hartz regional organization in quedlinburg (established by the rural administrative department of Hartz Mountain), and the other is the registered association named FEMO (a branch of the land/Osphal management organization in Brownsville).

A special geological model consisting of anticline and syncline is formed between the bedrock block in the Haltz Mountains and the rock salt structure in the Fleckling Mountains. The Mesozoic and Cenozoic stratigraphic sequence in this area contains many sedimentary facies, including iron ore, lignite and rock salt deposits. The existence of these sedimentary deposits has given birth to the development of mining, steel and automobile industry (such as Volkswagen) and other related industries. Therefore, the motto of Brownsville Geopark is: "Earth history is the cornerstone of the development of industrial society".

Germanic Triassic has a complete outcrop along the rock salt anticline. The strata are mainly composed of stromatolites and oolites in the early Triassic, mineralized limestone in the middle Triassic and delta deposits in the late Triassic. The characteristics of Jurassic strata include the early Jurassic black shale facies containing fossils (ammonites, insects and vertebrates) and the late Jurassic carbonate rocks exposed at the northern edge of the Haltz Mountains (dinosaur fauna was recently discovered here). Cretaceous strata are characterized by sedimentary iron deposits (Zalzgit/Pine type) and Cretaceous syncline of Sabohesen, which is the transition zone from terrigenous siliceous debris to marine carbonate sediments through delta and east-west outcrop.

Triassic strata containing lignite can be observed on the syncline of the edge of Helmstadter-Staas Fute rock salt anticline, which is interbedded with marine glauconite. The typical sediments of Pleistocene strata are glacial cycles (moraine, ice-water sediments, peat, mud, loess and travertine). Glaciers still exist in older rocks, such as banded Retia sandstone and glacier columns.

As a famous basement mountain range in Central Europe, Harz Mountain has world-famous geological relics (Bad Hartzburg, Bugert, Hartz), which provides an excellent geological record for studying Paleozoic orogeny and geodynamic mechanism. The characteristic of Haltz Mountain Range is that there are small-scale exposed sedimentary rocks (sandstone, slate, flint, miscellaneous sandstone and reef limestone) and igneous rocks (metamorphic basalt, amphibole and tuff) in geographical space. There are impressive volcanic-sedimentary sequences (copper shale, carbonate rock and gypsum karst) in the early Permian and late Permian in southern Haze.

Harz Mountain Range has a mining and research history of over 1000 years. Even J. W.vonGoethe studied the connection between granite roofs and peak-breaking granite. The historical deposits in the Harz Mountains and their mining history have attracted wide attention in the world, such as the Ramelberg polyethylene metal deposit (a world cultural heritage).

Geological tourism

There is a baroque wooden structure information center in Brownsville Geopark, Germany. The information center provides various services for geological parks, and also provides geological education and visiting services for tourists. Visitors can learn about the relationship between geological phenomena in the natural landscape and the world we live in, and they can also watch fossil remains here to learn more about nature and the earth.

On the northern edge of the Haltz Mountains, the Paleozoic basement is superimposed as a forward fault in front of steep or even inverted Mesozoic layered rocks. Along many excellent thrust outcrops, visitors can see the geological sedimentary history very clearly. Therefore, the area between Gosla and Hatzburg is called "typical geological square mile", which is the motto of the whole geological park.

In addition, there are some important sites found in the early history of mankind in Haz, such as prehistoric Graff wine and famous excavation sites (Neanderthals and unicorn caves in Zarzgit).